Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Credit Statistics, First Half of 2009 (ended 30.06.2009)

The Monetary Authority of Macao released today, for the first time, statistics of bank credit to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Macao. New Lending Approved In the first six months of 2009, new SME credit limit approved by Macao banks increased by 19.7% from the second half of 2008 to MOP6.2 billion. The collaterialised ratio, that is the part of credit limit with tangible assets pledged, stood at 39.3%, down 22.0 percentage points compared with the last survey period. Credit Utilisation As at end-June 2009, the outstanding value of total SME loans reached MOP19.5 billion, with a decrease of 1.4% compared with the end of 2008. By economic sector, “construction and public works”, “wholesale and retail trade” and “manufacturing” posted the largest shares of 41.2%, 17.9% and 11.2% respectively. The share of SME loans outstanding in domestic loans to the private sector dropped slightly by 0.7 percentage points from six months ago to 21.0%. Concurrently, the utilisation rate, that is the proportion of outstanding credit balance to the credit limit granted, declined 4.7 percentage points to 61.1%. Delinquent Loans At the end of June 2009, the outstanding balance of SME delinquent loans rose slightly by 1.06% from six months earlier to MOP0.43 billion. The delinquency ratio was 2.22%, up by 0.05 percentage points. Starting this year, the Monetary Authority of Macao conducts a comprehensive survey of SME credit and disseminates the results on a semi-annual basis.